Safe & Sound

Alberto was deported by our beloved government on Wednesday, August 1st.  He left the US on a government plane and flew 2,000 miles away from the family we created together.  I was frantic when I didn’t hear from him at all on Wednesday.  I finally got ahold of him on Thursday afternoon when I called la Madrina’s / Madra’s house.  He had arrived from the bus station less than 15 minutes before I called, and I have never been so relieved in my adult life.  He didn’t call me from the bus station after landing as he’d promised, because someone told him that some of the payphones in the bus stations are rigged to save the last number dialed.  Unscrupulous people can call that last number dialed and extort money saying the person was ‘kidnapped’.  Sneaky little bastards…

I know that Alberto is an adult and he knows how to take care of himself, but I felt the ice block in my chest begin to crack and melt from the moment I was able to talk to him.  Maybe it’s simply the novelty of being able to call and talk to my best friend whenever I want.  I had to smile when he told me his priority after a shower and clean clothes was to searching out a taco cart and a haircut.

Throughout his time in jail, Alberto was constantly helping other people anyway possible.  I think the last person he met will stick with him the longest.  Jose is an immigrant who had it all; a woman he loved, a truck, a house, and a green card.  Unfortunately, Jose’s past misdemeanor drug offense caught up with him at a routine traffic stop.  Alberto didn’t say why Jose was arrested although I suspect alcohol was involved; but in a matter of months he lost everything.  USCIS revoked his permanent residency after compounding the offenses together.  Jose wanted to appeal, but his woman refused to sell the truck he bought to pay for an attorney to help him.  A week after that revelation, she stopped taking his calls.  They were together several years, and Jose had been in the US for closer to 20 years.  Jose and Alberto were deported together, and Alberto asked me to contact Jose’s family here to help the poor guy find a place to stay.  I managed to get ahold of Jose’s brother, although he tried to hang up on me at first.  Jose is safely tucked away with his family he hadn’t seen in 2 decades, and Alberto has finally seen what a truly wonderful wife I am.

Mi Comadre Alondra, daughter of Madra, says that the differences in Alberto are very visible even after such a short period of time in his company.  Alondra says that he doesn’t refer to me as Deza anymore, but as his wife.  She says that he sounds proud and almost a little awed when he talks about me, as if he can’t believe that I’ve stuck by him throughout this whole process.

Alberto mentioned that some of the guys gave him crap at first when I would come to visit him.  They said that his woman was checking in on him as if that was a bad thing.   It’s a Mexican thing that goes hand in hand with the emotional maturity of a plate of chilaquiles, and the need to show they wear the pants in any relationship.  It only took two weeks before the guys changed their tune; only one other girlfriend/wife showed up on a regular basis, but not as consistently as I did.  His new friends started singing the praises of a woman that stays by your side no matter what. 

I believe in the vows we spoke at our wedding.  I believe anything worth having is worth fighting for.  I believe in fighting for my ‘happily ever after’, and I believe in the end I will win.

“My great-great-grandmother's portrait hung in the University up until the Revolution. By then, the truth of their romance had been reduced to a simple fairy tale. And while Cinderella and her Prince *did* live happily ever after, the point, gentlemen, is that they *lived*.”

Grand Dame (Ever After - 1998)

Ciao